You think you know poverty? Let me tell you about poverty;
“We were the last in our neighbourhood to get a TV, the last to get a
car. My parents had headaches about how to pay for the house.
There only two choices for a young threadbare Stéphane – the coal mines or four years in Paris.
I should mention my father was one of nine children, and he worked damn near his entire childhood and worked through exhaustion to put himself through university – no hand outs or hand ups, just perseverance and hard work.
“I cant figure who was poorer, Dion without a TV. or Brian Mulroney needing a quick 300 K to get him over the hump of leaving public life?””
Awwww Cal2 stoppit!! Ya got the tears just gushin’ from me….and it isn’t in mourning for Dijon and Muldoom tales of poverty….I just can’t believe they think the public will lap up this steaming goat cluster like it was custard….frik they think we’re dumb!
Did Dijon have a picture of his pet warf rat “rene” because the family was so poor they only rented him a puppy for one day and after christmas day he had to return it for the rat?
Awww there ya go I got another gusher comin’ poor lil’ Steffie…the bare footed Rat boy standing friendless and shivering in the snow like one of them black velvet saucer eyed waif paintings they hang in cheap motel lobbies…hand me a hankie this image is too good to waste…get the tee shirts screened
My parents had headaches about how to pay for the house.
You had a house?? My parents could not afford the down payment on their one and only home until i was 14 years old. Before that we lived in peoples basements (five kids) or motel rooms. Meals were graveyard stew (burnt toast,powdered milk, water,salt,pepper and butter if we were lucky) and my favorite ham hocks with white navy beans on old white bread that was on sale. Everything we owned fit in a 1961 ford econoline van with little tiny wheels, mom and dad called it the Hotel Ford. Christmas was when our relatives would send their used clothing since they had got new duds for their kids for Christmas. And Dion we never thought we were poor.
and Dion we had a tv, bought used, and black & white, I guess we had you beat.
Mssr Dion , if you are looking for sympathy you will find it in the dictionary , its between $hit and syphilis.
me,no, not from Sask. , Im a displaced bluenoser, which gives me no end of joy when I go on a rant about the nova scotians and newfies and their sense of entitlement especially around them, and then switch into proper ‘ometown agcent. “eh bye, I need ninedeen bucks to buy a case of keefs before I go on my EI break back to the oyland, hey buddy”
cal2, a bluenoser!
I knew there was something about you I liked.
I was on seismic ship in 1971 out of Hallyfax.
I got to see to see Sable Island from a porthole.
Had to ride out a storm on a flatbottom Gulf of Mexico boat.
Also tested the Moosehead.
You are quickly promoted to procurer of, ahem, refreshments.
Don’t really give a toss whether Steffi went around barefoot with patches on his britches. What a dweeb, Leader of the Official Opposition trolling for sympathy, that’s gotta be one of the last refuges.
Having no TV in Quebec in his era, what would he miss, the Plouffe Family, or were they before his time?
He sure led one linguistically isolated life for a person with such an education.
The SHAME of poverty in America:
“Each year, the U.S. Census Bureau counts the number of “poor” persons in the U.S. In 2005, the Bureau found 37 million “poor” Americans.
The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:
Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
While the poor are generally well-nourished, some poor families do experience hunger, meaning a temporary discomfort due to food shortages. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 13 percent of poor families and 2.6 percent of poor children experience hunger at some point during the year. In most cases, their hunger is short-term. Eighty-nine percent of the poor report their families have “enough” food to eat, while only 2 percent say they “often” do not have enough to eat.
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family’s essential needs. While this individual’s life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.
Of course, the living conditions of the average poor American should not be taken as representing all the poor. There is actually a wide range in living conditions among the poor. For example, over a quarter of poor households have cell phones and telephone answering machines, but, at the other extreme, approximately one-tenth have no phone at all. While the majority of poor households do not experience significant material problems, roughly a third do experience at least one problem such as overcrowding, temporary hunger, or difficulty getting medical care.”
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm
To Cal2. So you’re the bye who built the boat!! My buddy is a bluenoser. He tells me that he arrived here (Sask.) on a windy day, riding “horseback on a tumbleweed.” Good man, and extremely funny!!
From Wikipedia:
“Dion was raised in a modest home on Liegeois Boulevard in the Sillery district of Quebec City.”
So, being naturally curious, I click on “Sillery”…
“Sainte-Foy—Sillery is the wealthiest borough of Quebec City. Population (2001): 68,410. It comprises Sillery and most of Sainte-Foy.”
Jeezus….words fail me.
We were so poor dat we ad to use da paper bag to and out da money dat we stole from da taxpayer.
dats not fair…..
I’ll just lower the level of discourse a bit here to observe that he is not only disengenuous, but he has a remarkably stupid look about him.
We were so poor dat we can’t afford da or in poor, we were po!
maybe De Onion could publish a book on leftist “definitions”, might help me to understand sum of the BS these lieberal fools spew
when I came to kanada we had much less than DeOnion, and we were not poor
I have been in third world countries, I have seen POOR
hi remember mine pa taks da sheet an put inta garrten for da vegtable. hareal earho e were.
Could this be the new Liberal strategy? Going after the sympathy vote?
“Vote for me cuz I didn’t have a tv until the 60’s.”
Yeah, I could see that working.
well buddy , you stays where ya are and I’ll come where yer too.
Im a bluenoser , but me mudder , she be be a newfie, and not one of dem new ones, by gum she got her name written in da famly bible to prove she was born nar before ninedean fordy nine .
soes some of da famly dey stayed out der and collects yer dole, but dey dont want to talk to me about dat neider. and even me mudder she lives her in da west and wown go back der no sir.
she gets a nice piece of cod for her birdday and she’ll be some fine for it.
but Im a westerner now.
Free the West
My father grew up during the depression in Scotland. My grandfather worked in transit collecting fares from passegners. The only reason why he was able to attend a good school was the scholarship he earned. He could not even afford a new bicycle and yet he would say he was not poor. Watch someone from that time eat, see how they scrape their plate clean, how they keep money. These are not people from a family that has decided to not have a TV or a car.
There is a website you can put in your annual earnings and it will tell you how you rate compared to the rest of the world’s population. Back when I was earning 25k I was still in the top 5% of world for income.
Mr. Dion changes his tune as often as Belinda changes bedmates!!! When he became Liberal leader wasn’t he focused on a “sustainable environment” that has equilibrium of social environmental policy and fiscal economic growth? He would chirp this song for about 8 months? Notice how the Liberal party has not gained traction with the public? So how important is the environment to this former minister of the environment. Guess he’s trying the ‘poverty” flavour with the Canadian public, see if they buy or not?
The French citizen Dion never actually said that they were poor because he knows he can’t. Dion just said these things so that those that don’t pay attention would think that he was poor. This is a clever talk he learned since he left the academe and turned politician.
Of course lack of car or a TV is not a qualification for poverty.
In this country, today, nobody qualifies for poverty. Maybe a few.
There are those that
– will not do necessary things to do better for themselves
– will not move a finger lest they be disqualified from receiving welfare.
– will not move to a place where there is available work
– will wear safety pin through the nose, so nobody will hire them
– will join the professional protest storm troopers so they have no time for real work
– will avoid anything that will lawfully improve their lives
– will find a scheme where they can scam those that pay taxes.
– will and will not do things that lead to improvement in their lives.
Remember this thing, politicians eliminating poverty has been going on from the time there was a state. If you read Plato, Aristotle and many others from that time, politicians were eliminating poverty since then, and maybe before.
The thing is that the statement ‘I will eliminate poverty’ is patently false. The statement that ‘I will reduce poverty’ is meaningless, though it sounds good.
You have to establish what poverty is. Artificial qualifications do not count.
Growing up in socialist paradise, there was hunger at times nothing a kid could not handle, does not qualify for poverty. Family, even relatives never had a car, does not qualify for poverty. Somewhat poor maybe, though not poverty.
And speaking of politicians who have been making claims of poverty lately, the Star actually has a good article (yeah, I know, I’m amazed too) on Mulroney’s “poverty” after leaving office.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/278762
Poverty is the inability to provide the necessities of life. In Dion’s world, TVs are a necessity of life. I guess that means that in his view of social justice our tax dollars should be used to ensure every home has a TV.
As they say “One generations standard of living becomes the next generations entitlements”….
JCL
When I read that Stephi was going to rid Canada of poverty I thought he had won a beauty contest!
Stephie’s first year:
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/dion-1year-at-issue-071122.wmv